Candace the Cosplayer
by AshRB
Summary: Candace has always been shy, but will a newfound hobby bring her bravery? Oneshot. Summer gift for Shimmerleaf. Contains references to other media.


_Merry Summer, Shimmerleaf! I hope you enjoy this story as much as I had fun writing it!_

_For everyone else, this story makes references to certain other media and I tried to be as vague as possible about them so I wouldn't spoil them for anyone else. So, there may be certain jokes or references that you may not get. I apologize for that, but I hope you'll give them a try if you ever get the chance! :D_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or any of the other things referenced in this story._

**Candace the Cosplayer**

"Is this one of those handheld gaming systems?" Luna asked as she wrapped a strand of her pink hair around her finger.

It was the first day of summer and Candace, Luna, and their grandmother Shelly were having lunch at the inn. Maya, the peppy waitress, had just finished taking their orders when Shelly decided to surprise the girls with some special treats. With a smile, the elderly woman had reached into her purse and pulled out two Nintendo 3DS's and two games. Luna had picked up her pink one and was now studying it. All Candace could do was gape down at the blue console that had been presented to her.

"G-Grandma," Candace's eyes widened, "How did you afford these? Aren't gaming console's expensive?"

Shelly's smile widened and she handed Candace a game titled _Fire Emblem Awakening._

"You girls have been working so hard these last few months and I thought you deserved a reward. Nothing is too much for my lovely granddaughters!" Shelly explained as she handed Luna _Rune Factory 4._

"Wow! Thank you so much, Grandma!" Luna jumped out of her seat and went to hug the elderly woman, "I can't wait to tell Bo!"

Luna and the young woodsman had been going out for almost a full season. Candace smiled at Luna's exclamation. It was good to see her so happy.

"T-Thank you, Grandma," Candace took her grandmother's hand, "T-these are wonderful gifts."

Suddenly, a loud crash could be heard from the kitchen, quickly followed by some coughs and the sounds of an apologetic Maya and a very frustrated Chase.

"Eek! I'm so sorry! I thought you baked cake at five hundred degrees!" Candace could hear Maya wail from the other room.

"Maya, how many times have I told you to STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN?!" Chase's voice was firm and fierce.

"But I want to learn how to cook and you never want to teach me!"

"Maya, now's not a good time. We have customers."

"But it's never a good time!"

Candace could hear Chase sighing and could imagine what he was doing. He was probably closing his brilliant purple eyes and concentrating on finding his center. He was taking deep breathes to calm himself down and was focusing about thinking of ways to fix the mess that Maya had started while still simultaneously performing his already taxing job. The truth was that Candace greatly admired Chase. Being a fellow introvert herself she could sense when the overbearing nature of the more outgoing folk of Castanet started to get to him and completely understood why he would often become withdrawn. Unlike her, however, Chase was able to stand his ground when social situations got tough, whereas Candace would literally run and hide. She had so much respect for his strength in being assertive and being able to do such a difficult job of being a chef.

Chase popped his head out from the kitchen door, "Sorry, ladies, but your order may be a few minutes late." His purple eyes fell upon Candace's blue. She blushed and quickly looked away.

"That's alright, Chase!" Shelly's voice was warm and understanding, "Take all the time you need!"

Meanwhile, Luna had opened up the box to her 3DS and had migrated to one of the inn's electrical outlets. Her eyes went wide as she played with the settings and she gasped when she flipped on the 3-D switch.

"Oh my gosh! It's like it's coming right at me!" her eyes began to squint, "Kinda hurts your eyes after a bit though." She opened up the case to _Rune Factory 4 _and began to play as she waited for the food to be delivered.

Candace looked at the case of _Fire Emblem Awakening. _It depicted people with weapons drawn, a few of which had blue hair like herself, flying across the background. It appeared to be a fantasy game, which pleased Candace. She absolutely adored fantasy stories. Any chance to escape her own reality where she was nothing but a plain, reclusive girl and travel to a land of adventure and romance was wonderful.

Eventually, the mess in the kitchen was taken care of and the ladies' food was brought out to them. Luna took a bite of her berry pie and munched happily, while Candace stared down at her herbal tea and frowned at her reflection.

"So," Luna began in between bites, "The Mayor wants to try something different for the Summer Festival this year."

"Ah, but I do so enjoy our fireworks each year," Shelly took a sip of her own tea.

"Oh, we're still going to have the fireworks! Hamilton just wants to try something new this year. He wants to have something that the other villages don't. To help with tourism, you know? And I quite agree. Castanet as a whole could use more business."

Candace smiled as she drank her tea. That was her sister! Always so business minded!

"He's asking everyone to come to him with ideas," Luna sighed and looked up at the ceiling, "And I've been drawing a complete blank on what to do. It's driving me crazy!"

"I'm sure you'll come up with something, dear," Shelly smiled.

"Well, now that my more creatively minded sister knows, maybe she'd be willing to help?" Luna looked at Candace with a grin.

"I-I'll see if I can think of anything, Luna," Candace traced the rim of her teacup with her finger. She doubted that she would come up with anything, though. She was just a tailor. Coming up with ideas to attract tourism wasn't her forte at all.

The ladies finished their lunch and began to head out the door. Candace turned her head as she stepped outside and caught a glimpse of Chase wiping down their table. Blushing, she fled to the safety of her family's tailor shop.

When the sun had set and the day's work had been completed, Candace retreated to her room, eager to start playing _Fire Emblem Awakening_. She popped the game into her 3DS and marveled at the cut scene that played once the game booted up. It looked as if she were in for a grand adventure indeed. She selected _new game _and soon found herself at a character creation screen. She could be male or female. Candace thought about it for a moment and decided to do a female play through first. She flicked through the customization options and decided that her avatar was going to look the least like her as humanly possible. She chose the tallest build, since her less than stellar height had always irked her. Also, the tall build for the female was, rather…busty, which was something Candace obviously wasn't. She gave her avatar a happy and approachable face and short, cute, sunny-blond hair. The default name for the avatar was _Robin _and Candace thought that was pretty so she left it as is.

The game began with Candace's character and a handsome, blue-haired man named Chrom fighting what appeared to be an evil sorcerer. The combat seemed easy enough to grasp. The playing field was divided into little squares and both forces took turns like in a game of chess. The sorcerer was quickly defeated and Robin and Chrom stood victorious, until Robin did the unthinkable and killed Chrom. Candace gasped, but then became confused when the next scene played and Chrom was helping her character stand up and acting like he had never seen her before. Intrigued by this twist, Candace snuggled into her chair and let the game take her away.

Every day for a week and a half, when Candace wasn't working she would be lost in her adventures in the land of Ylisse. She soon learned that Chrom was a prince and was quite pleased when he and Robin fell in love. She had always been a sucker for stories where the heroine ended up with the prince. And Robin ended up being quite the intriguing character herself. She was smart and was what the game referred to as a tactician; a person with a quick and brilliant mind who could come up with the most amazing battle strategies. Robin was also very brave and was willing to sacrifice herself so that the game's ultimate evil would stay forever vanquished. She was so unlike Candace in every way. The tailor soon found herself wishing that she could be more like her little avatar.

From the other side of the room, Candace could hear Luna getting sucked into her own game as well. She often heard her sister laughing at the antics of two characters named Doug and Dylas and crying over a character named Venti. She squealed over a character named Kiel, who Luna swore up and down was just like Bo and cheered whenever she beat a boss. Candace couldn't wait to play _Rune Factory 4 _sometime in the future, but until then, the adventures of Robin and Chrom were keeping her quite happy.

Luna was off on a date with Bo the night Candace beat _Fire Emblem Awakening_. She sighed with contentment as she watched the credits roll and happily read the little cards that foretold what happened to all the characters she had grown to love. At the same time, she couldn't help but feel sad. She didn't want to stop seeing the world through the brave eyes of Robin. She didn't want to go back to being plain, old, boring Candace. She sat in her chair and let her mind wonder long after the credits had finished rolling. Her eyes eventually fell upon her sewing machine. She looked at it and then down at Robin. Sewing machine, Robin. Sewing machine, Robin. A light bulb went off in Candace's head. Maybe there was a way she could bring her avatar into the real world after all.

For many nights Candace worked in secret. She studied Robin's iconic tactician's coat and went through all of her fabrics until she found the perfect shade of dark blue. She made patterns to insure that the symbols of eyes went down the arms evenly and made sure the inside of the coat was lined with the most beautiful shade of royal purple. She found some gold buttons to go down the front and worked until the coat was as painstakingly accurate as anyone in the real world could ever hope to achieve. The sewing of the pants and shirt went much faster, an easy enough job for someone who made their living making clothes and some knee high boots were easily procured. The wig was tricky, but she was able to order one out of the catalogues that they kept for customers in their store. She had Luna go to the general store to buy her a blank hardback diary. Luna didn't question it, but made sure to get on her case about being too shy to even go shopping. Candace soon painted the book to look like one of the tomes from the game.

Finally, her hard work was done. Candace waited until Luna went on another date with Bo and her grandmother was asleep. She double checked to make sure that no one would catch her and ran into her room, ready to start her transformation. She put the costume on carefully in order not to ruin her hard work and piled her long hair up into a wig cap. The wig cap was rather itchy, but she did her best to ignore it. The blond wig was put on over top of it. Candace stood in front of her mirror and gasped.

She wasn't plain, old, meek Candace anymore…

She was the beautiful, brave, and smart Robin.

After the initial shock wore off, Candace smiled and giggled, "_Checkmate_," a line Robin would often say after defeating an enemy.

Feeling strong in her new costume, Candace picked up her "tome" and began to fling pretend spells all around her room, giggling all the while. She felt so strong and happy. Happier then she felt in a very long time, as a matter of fact. She continued this until she heard Luna open the front door. Candace threw off her costume at breakneck speed and managed to hide it just as Luna came into the room.

Luna took one look at her sister and knew something was off about her, "Well, you look very…happy. Did something happen while I was gone?" Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

"N-nope. Nothing," Candace tried her best to hide her smile. She had to keep her costume a secret. She couldn't let somebody know that she had dressed up as some fictional character! It was too embarrassing, "S-so how did your date go?"

Luna knew that Candace was trying to change the subject, but decided to let it slide, "It went great! Bo and I…"

Candace listened to her sister retell the events of the night, glad that she hadn't been caught.

Whenever she got the chance, Candace would put on her costume and twirl around in front of her mirror. She started up another play through of her game and played in costume whenever she could. Luna knew that something was up, but Candace would always transform back into herself in the nick of time.

One day as Candace was working at her sewing machine, she heard the bell above the shop's door jingle and a customer came into the store. Candace kept her eyes on her work, hoping she wouldn't have to meet their eye.

"Why, hello there, Chase!" Luna greeted the customer, "What brings you here today?"

Chase?! Candace quickly whipped her head around and sure enough, there was the chef she so admired standing in the middle of the shop. Her face turned a bright scarlet and she dove behind a rack of clothes to hide. Luna, of course, saw this and got a twinkle in her eye. Candace watched as her sister helped Chase with his purchase and once the man had exited the store, let out a sigh of relief as she stood up from behind the clothes.

Luna grinned wryly at her.

"W-what?" Candace knew her face was still red, but didn't know how to stop it.

"So…"Luna began to circle her, like a vulture examining its prey, "Is that what your big secret is? You have a crush on Chase?"

All Candace could do was feel her cheeks heat up even more and try to cover her blushing face with her trembling hands.

"I knew it!" Luna wrapped her sister up in an excited hug, "You have to tell him!"

"Oh no! I c-could never do that!" Candace was mortified.

"If you won't, then I will!" Luna began to run towards the door.

"Luna, no!" Candace grabbed her sister's arm, tears of absolute terror streaming down her face.

"Fine, fine…"Luna walked behind the counter and began to look through the store's ledger, "But you have to tell him sometime. It's not healthy to keep your emotions bottled up like that."

Wiping away her tears, Candace sat back down at her sewing machine.

"He ordered a wig out of a catalogue, in case you were wondering," Luna said as she flipped through the ledger.

A wig? Candace stopped sewing for a minute. Now that was…curious?

Later, Luna walked into their room, rubbing her head in thought. The Summer Festival was quickly approaching and she had yet to think of a single good idea for Hamilton. Neither had anybody else for that matter. It was driving her absolutely insane. She groaned and pounded her head into her pillow. Suddenly, something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Sticking out from behind her sister's dresser was just a hint of blue. Now curious, Luna walked over and pulled the object out. It was a…costume? It looked like something out of the _Fire Emblem _game Candace was always playing. Luna laid it out and admired it. As always, her sister's craftsmanship was impeccable. Who would have ever taken Candace for being a cosplayer, eh? It was too bad that they couldn't go to one of those Comic-cons that the larger cities always held. Candace's hard work deserved to be shown off…

An idea hit Luna like a bolt of lightning. She dashed towards Hamilton's house, eager to let the mayor know.

The next day, Candace, Luna, and Maya sat at the inn drinking some ice tea. Maya was on her break and she was happy to spend some time with her friends. Luna was bouncing up and down in her seat, excitedly telling them her plan.

"Harvest-con?" Maya tilted her head to the side, "What's that?"

"It's a play on the term _comic-con_," Luna explained, "It's basically a convention where people come together to celebrate their favorite forms of media, wither it be movies, video games, comic books, or what have you! People plan panels, wear costumes, have photo-shoots, and basically just have an awesome time! Hamilton absolutely loved my idea. He said it was the most original thing he heard and it was something the other villages definitely don't have!"

"Oh my gosh! That sounds like so much fun!" Maya squealed.

"I know, right! And I never would have thought of it if it weren't for my creative older sister and her brilliant costume!"

"S-so, you were the one who dug it out?" Candace blushed, embarrassed, "I-I wondered how it got on my bed." Her secret had been discovered.

"I never thought that you would be a cosplayer, sis! It's so cool!"

Cosplayer? Candace had no idea there was term for what she did.

"How do you know so much about this?" Maya asked Luna as she drank her tea.

"You know the style of clothes I wear? It's called _Lolita _and it's also very big at conventions. Your clothes are actually kinda lolitaish too, Maya."

"Well, you learn something new every day! Ooo! We should start planning our costumes!" Maya stood out of her seat and jumped up and down excitedly, "Oh, I know! I'll be potato girl from _Attack on Titan!_"

Candace, still reeling from the fact that her costume had been found, looked up at her bouncing friend.

"Potato girl?" Luna raised an eyebrow, "Is that seriously her name?"

"I don't know. I was walking by Chase's house the other day when I noticed that he had his window open and was watching a show. I didn't get to see very much before he caught me, but I got to see a part where a girl, I think she was a soldier, was speaking to her general about how she just HAD to eat a potato she found lying around, and I thought, 'Hey! She's just like me!'"

"You shouldn't have been snooping around my, house, Maya!" Chase called from the kitchen.

Candace blushed at the sound of his voice.

"I told you, I was just walking by on my way to Kasey's!" Maya yelled back.

"_Attack on Titan's _too scary for you anyway! People get eaten left and right!"

"Stupid Chase ruins everything…" Maya muttered as she slunk back into her seat.

Candace stared down at her tea. Maya just didn't understand him.

"Candace has a crush on him," Luna said as easily as breathing as she took a sip of tea.

"Luna!" Candace reached across the table to cover her sister's mouth.

Maya stared at Candace, "Well, uh, good luck if you ever decide to act on those feelings, I guess? I'm so glad that I have Kasey, personally. He doesn't chase me out of the kitchen…" Maya glared at the kitchen door.

"Anywho," Luna put her teacup down, "I decided that I'm going to be Dolce from _Rune Factory 4_. I wanted to be Frey, but I think people would confuse me for a Volcaloid or something if I went as her. I think I look enough like Dolce to pull her off. I've convinced Bo to be my Lest and I'm going to go through my dolls to see if I have one that looks like Pico," she turned towards Candace, "And you're going to be that _Fire Emblem _person, aren't you, sis?"

Candace nodded, worried that she was now going to have to wear her costume in public. However, she couldn't help but think about the characters her friend and sister had chosen and their reasons behind it. Maya was going to be that potato girl because that character reminded her of herself and Luna was going to be Dolce simply because she looked like her. Candace wanted to be Robin because she was just the opposite of how she looked and acted. Was she wrong in wanting to do that? Should she have chosen a character that was more like her?

In the days leading up to Harvest-con, the tailor shop became absolutely flooded with business. It seemed like everybody in Castenet needed help with their costumes. Candace and Shelly sewed at a breakneck pace and the dollar signs never left Luna's eyes. In a strange way, seeing everyone else worry about their costumes helped Candace feel a little less self-conscious about wearing hers.

Finally, the big day dawned, and Candace and Luna hurried to put on their costumes. The process took a little while, as both of them had chosen some pretty elaborate cosplays. Luna even convinced Candace to put on some makeup, which was something she didn't do very often, but agreed that it would help her look more like her character. Luna finished putting hers on first and watched as Candace pinned up her long blue hair into her wig cap. Candace cringed as she put it on. She was really starting to hate the way it made her head itch and how it bit down into her scalp. The wig was carefully placed upon her head and she checked in the mirror to tuck away any fly by strands of blue that had managed to work themselves out. When she turned back around, she found that her younger sister was gaping at her.

"Candace…" Luna gasped, stunned by what she saw, "You look completely different! Nobody is going to recognize you dressed like that! You can be completely incognito…"

A brave, new exciting feeling entered Candace's chest after hearing her sister's words. If nobody was going to recognize her, she really _didn't _have to be Candace. For the first time in her life she felt confident, like she could do _anything._

"Come on, Luna! Let's go!" Candace grabbed her sister's hand and pulled her out the door.

"Wow! I've never seen you worked up like this," Luna laughed as she was dragged along.

"You girl's look fantastic," Shelly said as she pulled out a camera, "I barely even recognize you, Candace! Let me take a quick picture before you head out."

The girls struck a pose and soon they found themselves outside in a completely transformed Castanet. There were cosplayers everywhere, many of whom didn't even live in Castanet but had come from the neighboring villages to join in the fun. The sister's looked around at a few of them. Owen and Kathy were dressed up as Ganondorf and Link from _The Legend of Zelda _and were having a mock battle in the middle of the street. Calvin was dressed up as Indiana Jones and Luke was Han Solo. Two people named Rock and Pony had come all the way from Forget-Me-Not Valley. Rock was Brock from _Pokemon _and was busy chasing all of the girls around. Pony was wearing overalls and a backwards baseball cap and said she was a character named Jack from something called _Harvest Moon,_ but nobody knew what that was. Chelsea, Vaughn, Mark, Sabrina, and Pierre from the Sunshine Islands had done an _Attack on Titan _group and Maya was busy chatting away with them. Toby was somebody from something called _Duradura!, _which neither Candace or Luna had seen, so they couldn't really comment on it.

"Luna! Er…I mean, Dolce!" Bo ran up two the girls, dressed up as Lest.

"Bo!" Luna wrapped her boyfriend up in big hug, "You look perfect!"

"So do you!" he turned to face Candace, "So who's your new friend here? Is she visiting from another village?"

Candace's grin reached up ear to ear. He really didn't recognize her!

"My name is Robin," Candace shook his hand, "It's nice to meet you, Bo."

"It's nice to meet you too," Bo turned back to Luna, "Are you ready, honey?"

"Sure am!" Luna took Bo's hand and they went to join in the festivities, "Have fun, _Robin._" Luna winked at her sister before she ran off.

Candace now stood alone, but she didn't feel scared. She started to walk around the Harvest-con and admired everyone's costumes and even managed to strike up a few conversations, something she never would have been able to do as herself. She was headed towards the beach when two characters caught her eye. One was Marth, the hero king from the _Fire Emblem _series. The other was Chrom. There was a Chrom there! Candace couldn't help but squeal with excitement and ran to join her fellow _Fire Emblem _fans.

"Why, lookie here, Chrom," the Marth said as he noticed Candace running towards them, "It seems as if we are about to be joined by your trusty tactician!"

The Chrom turned around and Candace almost did a double take when she saw his purple eyes. It was Chase. Chrom was Chase. Chase was Chrom. It was like she suddenly entered an episode of the _Twilight Zone. _A wave of nervousness washed over her and all she wanted to do was run back into her room and hide, but she steadied herself. She wasn't Candace today. She was Robin and Robin wouldn't run.

"You two aren't planning battle strategies without me are you?" Candace grinned when she reached the two men.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Robin!" Chrom-Chase laughed

"Maybe we can all come up with a strategy to cool ourselves down!" Marth grinned, "It's absolutely blazing out here today! I don't know how you can stand wearing that coat!"

Honestly, the coat wasn't bothering Candace as much as the wig cap was. She was used to wearing long sleeves all year round. Her hair, however, was a matted, sweaty mess underneath the wig.

"Why, you're just not used to this Plegian heat! It's apparently customary to wear long coats in the middle of the desert! But what do I know? I woke up in the middle of a field!"

The trio laughed and went around the convention continuing to make _Fire Emblem _references every chance they got. Admittedly, Candace didn't always get the ones that Marth made since he was from another game in the series and she had only ever played _Awakening, _but she had the time of her life anyway. They found some people just as zombies and got into a mock battle with them, pretending that they were the "Risen" enemies from the game.

"_Anything can change!" _Chase quoted as he pretended to lunge his sword at a "risen."

"_It's time to tip the scales!" _Candace laughed as she hurled a "spell."

Soon the zombies were a laughing mass on the ground as they pretended to be dead.

"_Now that's strategy!" _Candace was giggling so hard she had to clutch her side.

"We really carried the day," Chase was hugging his sides too.

The sun began to set and Marth had to leave so he could return to his own village. Candace was now alone with Chase. Her cheeks began to heat up and she took a deep breath. He didn't know it was her. There was no need to feel scared. Nearby, somebody had set up a jukebox and many couples were waltzing at a formal dance set up by the beach. Candace spotted Luna and Bo swaying back in forth to the music. She wished that she could be part of the dance too.

An idea struck her. Maybe she could. She gulped and did the bravest thing she had ever done in whole life.

"Shall we, Chrom?" Candace took Chase's hand and led him to the dance floor.

Chase blushed, "Oh, of c-course, Robin."

The two began to dance. Luna caught Candace's eye and gave her a big thumbs up. She stared at her feet and glanced up at Chase. He was staring at his feet too and his face was even redder than hers. He looked up and saw her staring at him and the two of them broke out into nervous laughter.

"Look! The fireworks are starting!" Maya shouted from across the way.

The sky lit up into colorful explosions and Candace and Chase took a seat in the sand.

"I had a wonderful time today," Candace breathed as the fireworks reflected in her eyes.

"Me, too, Candace," Chase replied as he also watched.

Candace froze. Did he just say…

"H-how did you know it w-was m-me?" Candace stuttered, absolutely terrified.

"Nobody else has the same pretty blue eyes like you do," Chase's face lit up into a blush again.

He had known it was her. He had known all along. Candace started to pull the hood of her coat over her head in attempt to hide herself when his words hit her. Pretty. He said her eyes were pretty.

"T-thank you, Chase," she smiled shyly.

It was Chase's turn to freeze.

"How'd you know…"

"N-nobody else has your violet eyes."

The two continued to blush as the fireworks burst into the sky.

"Well, seeing as you know who I am anyway, there's no more reason to wear this blasted thing!" Chase tore off his wig and cap and sighed as the cool night air reached his sweaty head.

Candace laughed, "You said it!" and proceeded to do the same. Her long blue hair cascaded around her and she fluffed it out like a cape.

With the wig off of her head, she was officially no longer Robin. She was Candace and she was happy to be just Candace.

There was no one else she would rather be.

_Author's Note: Nobody got trapped this time! Hurray!_

_Review if you feel the urge to, unless you're Shimmerleaf, who's gotta. XD_


End file.
